Teaching Colors to My Visual Learner

One of areas where Violette has had challenges learning has been her colors (for some reason she learned shapes without much work, lol, colors have been a whole different story.)  She's got them down (almost - still have problems sometimes with Purple, ironically.)

Anyway, I thought I'd share some of the MANY resources we have used to help her learn her colors. 

Home Grown Materials:

Here is a little 'game' Violette's wonderful pre-k teacher sent home for us to use.  It is a matching game, with colors. Each Square has velcro on it, and it is good for practicing matching words and colors.  The toughest ones are black and blue and purple and pink for Violette - I think she uses the visual of the words very much, so if she sees a letter B or P, she associates it with those colors.

My mother made this game for Violette for her birthday last year.  Each of these little tins is full of surprises in the same color as the tin itself.  It is a fun game for sorting, finding which is different (sometimes I'll put the wrong color in a pile - like a blue thing in the orange pile, and ask her to pull the blue one out of the orange pile.)  This 'game' is a lot of fun, and one we go back to a lot.

Tins:

Red Contents:

Yellow Tin

Blue Tin

Posters:

One of the benefits of being the third child is that Violette has received a number of hand-me-down learning materials of her sisters.  For the last 11 years, these four posters have been hanging in our "baby room" where Violette sleeps:

We've talked about each of the posters with each of the girls, and Violette was no exception.  Here is the color poster:

I picked these up at a bookstore somewhere along the way (I've always thought I should have framed these instead of the tape on the door, lol.  I'm lame, what can I say!)

Video

Violette loves the Blues Clues Shapes and Color Video (a Lilianne hand-me-down):

She also loves the Signing Time "Colors of the Rainbow" from Volume 6:

And Box of Crayons:

Learning the sign for the colors was very helpful - she still will often sign "green" before she will say it if she sees something green.

Books:

This little book from Woodbine House is great - the best part is that on the pages, there are also shapes with the color - so maybe a red square and a blue square later on in the book- this way you can check to make sure your child understands the difference in concept between shape and color.

Flash Cards:

These are great flashcards - looks like they are sold out right now at the BabyBumbleBee Site!  We love all of the BabyBumbleBee Videos - I really think they have helped with Violette's speech, especially the question video.

The nice thing about these cards is how strongly they support a visual learner - I've read that kids with Down syndrome do better with images of real things vs. drawings, and have found that to be true with Violette. Check out all of these "orange" objects. Each card is like this with a whole bunch of things the same color:

 So, that's it  - we spent a WHOLE lot of time at home thinking about and talking about colors, lol.  Thank goodness shapes came so much easier! Presently working on parallelogram, octagon and hexagon...

 

A Wonderful Old, But New to Me, Poem

Sitting on the Board of the Directors of the Down Syndrome Association of Greater Cincinnati is great. At our last meeting, we reminiscing about the history of DSAGC, and one of the founding members of DSAGC attended the meeting. She provided a good deal of history about the early days of the organization, and she also read this wonderful poem that appeared in the materials that they handed out back in the day (her daughter with Down syndrome, by the was is 30 years old, and it was so interesting to hear how full and rich her life is!)

See Me For Me

When you look at me -
What do you see?

When you look into my eyes
   Do you see beautiful blue,
   sparkling with joy, delight
   in my accomplishments
Or do you see that "almond shape"
   or "brushfield spots"?

When you look at my hands
   Do you see them reaching
   for toys, writing the alphabet,
   throwing a ball, doing a
   meaningful job
Or do you see a "simian crease"?

When you look at my face
   Do you see the resemblance
   to my parents, that I have just had
   my hair permed
Or do you see a "flat face" or
   "epicanthal folds"?

When you look at my behavior
   Do you see my feelings of
   pleasure and anger, my desire
   to achieve, my frustration in
   being treated like a baby
Or do you see the "stubbornness"?

When you look at my development
   Do you see me playing with peers,
   participating in sports, growing
   into a productive adult
Or do you see "low muscle tone" or
   "the eternal child"?


When you look at my family
   Do you see loving parents wanting
   to challenge me to my ultimate potential,
   sisters and brothers who have a better
   understanding of the differences in us all?
Or do you see a family torn apart by my
   difference, constantly in crisis, unable
   to accept, never to feel the joy of
   having a "normal child"?

What Do You See?
Look At Me.
Look Closer.
See Me For Me.

Written by :
Donna Roll
Dedicated to
Mary Ellen Graham
Founder of the DSAGC.